


Eiji's Gaijin Husband

by elena_stidham



Series: Kintsugi [2]
Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Consensual Sex, Cooking, Cuddling & Snuggling, Dinner, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Enthusiastic Consent, Explicit Consent, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, It's a sequel that also works by itself, M/M, Non-Explicit Sex, Teasing, post-recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-12-26 22:24:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18291434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elena_stidham/pseuds/elena_stidham
Summary: And it was replaced.A fic where Ash has almost entirely recovered from his traumas surrounding sex and love. He lives with Eiji in Japan now, and it's here when he realises just how happy he is, and just how much he loves being alive. Sequel to "I Did It, Eiji."





	Eiji's Gaijin Husband

**Author's Note:**

> WARNINGS FOR: Sex, language, probably unnatural af fluff because I am an Angst Writer attempting to be fluffy
> 
> SONGS USED TO GET IN THE MOOD: A lot of ASMR, actually. I noticed elemental sounds (fire, water, earth, wood, etc by GentleWhispering was getting me to write the most), plus the ambience of a coffee shop
> 
> So I wanted to write a sequel to “I Did It, Eiji” for a while now, and so here it is! This is now Eiji and Ash, domestic ass husbands, living in a life post-recovery and all is good. Now, I know one can never truly recover from something like what Ash had to live through, but at the same time, as someone in recovery, it gets to the point to where it’s not that bad anymore. You wake up and it’s not the first thing you can think about. You go to bed and it’s not haunting your dreams at night. You can live your life where flashbacks aren’t there every waking moment. You can work past most of your triggers and trauma. Sure, you can have moments, but recovery is there. That’s what I wanted to show – how far they’ve come. How happy they are. How wonderful life can be. 
> 
> So alas. Life is wonderful. 
> 
> Also based on some headcanons sevenflats and I share -- and some artwork to go with it. 
> 
> https://twitter.com/nakimooshi/status/1096431522813341696
> 
> https://twitter.com/nakimooshi/status/1105601461142994945
> 
> My tumblr is elenastidham. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoy!
> 
> -Elena

“I think I love you.” Ash has to pause, to wait, to process these words. He swallows them down, he shakes his head. “No, wait, I know I do.”

Eiji’s grin comes in the form of six waves – the suppressed, the chuckle, the lips, the teeth, the smile, the light. He turns back to where they meet eye-to-eye, and he holds his smile there.

“What’s prompted this?”

Ash shrugs, a pink-tinged face focusing now on the carrots he’s desperately trying to cut into even slices. It’s a simple dinner tonight – hot dogs and vegetables, and while they won’t remain in this kitchen for long, Ash loves to help cook whenever Eiji needs extra hands on his right. He mumbles a tiny “I dunno,” noticing now how his face is starting to feel a little bit hotter and hotter by the second. He’s nowhere near the grill.

Eiji holds this smile, still, and he casually wanders behind this frail mafia boy, taking up his arms into his own and holding the knife with him. “You dunno?” He presses his grin into Ash’s shoulder, taking his time with his syllables.

Ash swallows hard. “I dunno.”

“Okay,” Eiji giggles, pressing a firm kiss onto the bit of his cheek just below his temple, before he unravels himself and turns back towards the grill. “The hot dogs are done.”

“Yes, done, right, all finished,” Ash mumbles quickly, the only proper thought on his mind was how delicately his skin tingles every time they’ve been blessed with Eiji’s lips. The words suddenly register in his brain, and he turns back to Eiji, now, eyes bright and widened almost like a child. “Can I have extra mustard?”

Eiji nods once, his lips remnant of his grin yet no longer contain any teeth showing. “Of course.”

“Hell yes _mustard_!” Ash whispers to himself, a childish tone in his voice that he hasn’t had the chance to use in a long time. Eiji notices this, and it’s then when he leans back and tickles lightly at his side. Ash shrieks, leaping a foot to the side and pouting about it in a way that’s _definitely_ done by only a child.

He’s nineteen years old, but in his heart, he’s just a child – yet unlike the rest of his life, he’s thriving _._ He’s happy. He’s alive.

Aslan, very simply, learned how to fly.

The first time it felt good, he cried.

Eiji held him tenderly, carrying him in his arms as if he was made out of shattered glass with a voice of porcelain. He was still fragile, but he didn’t feel that way.

Ash felt himself building from the deepest depths of his core, and he wasn’t scared of it anymore. He wasn’t afraid of this feeling anymore. When he came, it was loud, it was intense, it was pure. He had arched his back and curled his toes and held onto the sheets. Eiji met him there.

There was a moment, where the two of them just breathed together in a collective silence made impossible only by the sounds from their lungs. Their eyes did not break contact, and it’s within the end of this stunned quiet when the tears began to prick at Ash’s eyes.

“Hey, hey,” Eiji said, his voice smooth, his hand reaching for the tears to chase them with his thumb. However, Ash’s arm reacted, swatting away Eiji’s hands as he stared up with tears flowing from the sides. Eiji’s voice halted, his face confused, before finally, the tears carried an explanation.

_“I did it, Eiji.”_

The sentence didn’t strike right at first to Eiji, and he almost asked Ash to repeat this before the words finally sank in. He had made it. He had come so far. It felt _good._ He did it.

Eiji had been used to sharing tears and holding onto a trembling naked body until there was steady breathing. He had been used to crying, but he wasn’t used to smiling – he wasn’t used to seeing Ash in this way with air that only contains light. In the middle of horror and violence, Ash had finally been given a heartbeat of time where he would be able to peek through windows. In that flicker, in that very faint sprinkle of summertime, he did not cry as Ash Lynx.

He was just Aslan.

Moving on with sex had only gotten more simple from there. He was growing used to never being used anymore – he was growing used to a life where the climax wasn’t forced out of him, a live where he had wanted every touch. He was growing used to being loved. _Being loved._

Moving on consisted of an increasing frequency – intensity – and as the Earth still turns, they’ve found a perfect rhythm. They’ve found the purest form of sincerity.

The first time he was just Aslan, he remembered how he had cried. But Eiji will never ever forget how from that day afterwards, Ash refers to that night as his first time – never claiming it as the day he lost his virginity, but his first time. Eiji knew what he meant immediately.

After so much time, sex had seemed like a dark and distant pit of despair with no hope of escape to Aslan; yet, in just some time, Eiji had given him a ladder. They’ve only remained on the surface ever since. That isn’t to say the surface hasn’t had its moments where it would crack, but Ash had never plummeted back into this darkness again.

This moment on the surface Eiji’s inside him, holding himself up and above, watching the faces that Ash makes at a particular angle. He finds it charming, how Ash blooms – how he had become so much more comfortable, how he feels more alive. He finds it adorable how he turns his head to press his face into the pillow, gripping it tightly to his mouth to muffle the moans that slips past into there. He finds him wonderful. He finds him incredible.

Eiji reaches down, pushing the pillow back and carefully taking Aslan by his head and using his fingers to turn so they can lock eyes. The blush is bright on his face as shallow breaths shake past his skin. He trails his fingers down out of his face, pinning to his side again.

“You don’t have to hide your face from me,” Eiji giggles, leaning down to pepper his face with soft kisses and endless amounts of love. “It’s cute.”

The blush on Aslan’s face deepens, his lips purse together to smother the loud moans and keep himself reduced to shaky breathing through his nose. Eiji just leans in to kiss him, drinking in the moans now with his tongue and pulling away so he’s reiterating once again he doesn’t have to hold back.  

Holding back at this point isn’t out of shame – it’s just a tinge of embarrassment, almost a child-like whimsy from finally being free in an act that was ripped away from him at a young age. But now, with the right boy in his life, Aslan can finally experience something that was always supposed to remain as a beautiful thing.

It’s perfectly beautiful with the two of them. Who would have thought how love would become the most powerful thing—

As far back as he could remember, Ash would always run cold. Sometimes, in the middle of the summer, he’d find himself burying himself in jackets and blankets to try and raise his temperature, because despite the summer heat, he’d be absolutely freezing.

All the more reason to cuddle with Eiji, he thinks.

Despite being taller than the older boy, Ash likes to tuck his head underneath Eiji’s chin, his ear pressed to his chest and listening to the breathing heartbeat there. He’s known of people that would listen to music or meditate or watch relaxing videos for them to go to sleep. Aslan doesn’t need any of that.

He only needs the sound of Eiji’s heartbeat. He only wants to be wrapped up in Eiji’s touch. He only sleeps just fine when they share the same bed, when they care for each other, when they’re wrapped up in each other’s arms.

Most of the time, they don’t even need to speak. It’s at the end of the night where the moon would rise just enough into their bedroom to beam a glowing soft light inside. They don’t need to say anything. They partially don’t even want to. But on some nights, nobody seems to mind.

Ash remembers his first night in Japan curled up against Eiji – he couldn’t sleep. His mind was wandering in a million different places and his heart pushed him to stay awake. He blamed it on jet lag, but they both knew the real reason. It’s when Eiji placed his hand on Ash’s chest and paused on his heartbeat when they knew. They knew exactly why. And they knew that it’s public knowledge, but it was never acknowledged out loud.

It took some time to work past these thoughts when they’d hold each other, as the year started getting colder, his heart started feeling warmer.

Ash doesn’t think he’ll forget the first time Eiji truly felt how cold this boy was. Eiji probably won’t forget this, either.

It’s nearing November, just as Ash is properly complaining about freezing every day as normal. Eiji would just shrug it off, thinking he was just a big baby – he couldn’t handle the onsen heat, so a little bit of extra cold is probably making him a bit melodramatic. That night in bed, however, changed his mind on that forever.

“Jesus Ch- _rist!_ ” Eiji shouted, his body instinctively leaping backwards to escape the grasp of death itself. He had turned back, expecting something frozen to be what caused his reaction, but instead, he was met with a confused pair of emerald eyes. “Was that _you_?”

“Yes?” Ash’s tone was entirely confused, and it took Eiji a couple seconds before he put two and two together.

“You’re fucking _freezing,_ ” Eiji told him. _Get some damn clothes on_ was what he was going to tell him next, but he noticed the boy was already in a pair of long sleeved, long pant pyjamas.

Ash understood right then, and he just laughed. “I told you. And you called me a drama queen,” he teased, scooting closer to his lover, affectionately throwing out the nickname of “asshole.”

“Ash, oh my god, no,” Eiji giggled, trying to scoot away, but he nearly fell off the bed once he reached the end. Ash had used this opportunity to grab him just in time, yanking him close and suddenly wrapping himself around Eiji like a koala.

Eiji _shrieked._

They’ve grown used to the chilly nights, the mornings where there was a particular bite to the air, the goosebumps scattering across skin. They’ve grown used to the feeling of each other then, wrapped up in each other’s arms.

It brings the warmth that blankets could never provide.

Eiji carries the warmth of the sun itself – and perhaps this is why Ash was so drawn to him. The sunlight and the dawn. It’s only natural there.

Eiji’s dusting the bookshelves with a washcloth in their living room when Ash comes up to him with the most amazing smile and a look in his eyes caught somewhere between relief and acceptance. This means he had news – specifically, about his progress.

“Hey Eiji,” says Ash, beaming. He’s fiddling with his fingers. He’s made good progress today.

“Hey what?” Eiji smiles warmly at him, waiting patiently for the rest of his statement.

Ash wets his lips that had dried from heavy breathing, then he swallows. “I masturbated.”

He’s said this before – but it would always explain an incoming panic attack, some form of anxiety that manifested in his traumas and haunted every corner of his mind. It seems that now, there is no such thing.

“Did it feel good?”

Ash nods feverishly, almost like a child. It’s a wonderful sight to see this smile, this happy, bright smile – one that would cure all that was wrong in the world. The energy was so warm. So radiant. So effortlessly right.

“It felt so good, Eiji, can you believe—” he pauses, bouncing in place with excitement, trying to figure out how to say what’s on his mind without coming across as creepy or too much, but he remembers who he’s with. He remembers that he’s safe. “—I thought of you,” he says. “When I did, and it was so nice.”

Pink spreads across Eiji’s face like the blooming of cherry blossoms in spring. He chuckles lightly, almost nervously – not because of the comment, but because the mere thought of him was enough to get someone aroused and _going._ He looks over at Ash, folding the washcloth over his fingers, now. “Did you now?” His voice comforted, relaxed, a little frazzled and flustered.

Ash nods again, waiting for just a moment, his body buzzing in place with excitement. It’s incredible progress – to be able to go this far over somebody he cares about. It’s the miracle of Eiji Okumura, with him, light never dies.

Eiji recognises a specific glint in Aslan’s eye, and it’s then when he opens his arms, his smile melting to turn his entire face into joy and pride. Aslan dashes into these open arms, holding on tight, no chance of letting go anytime soon.

That’s alright. Eiji didn’t want to let go of him anyway.

Sometime later they’re cooking dinner in the kitchen. They’ve developed this system when they cook – Eiji dominates most of the kitchen, and Ash has his tiny corner to assist. Sometimes he works on dessert or he helps clean.

Today they’ve decided to take a break from the noodles and the rice and as if this boy wasn’t already spoiled enough – Ash asked for dinner tonight to be like food from an American Diner. Perhaps like Steak N Shake. Milkshakes, fries, the whole nine yards. He claims he isn’t homesick, but he will admit that there are some things he misses.

Eiji puts him in charge of the milkshakes while he works on dinner itself, and it’s increasingly difficult to figure out what the hell this boy wants.

“Well, diners have burgers, but you hate burgers. How about a hot dog?” Eiji had asked.

“We had them last week.”

“Do you want some kind of melt, then? Or a salad?”

“I had a salad for breakfast this morning.”

The little shit ended up deciding on chilli. Eiji’s having a burger, like a normal person.

Just as he’s finishing up he walks over to help Ash finalise the shakes, trying to figure out why it took him so long to make two simple milkshakes in the first place. Come to find out, he wasn’t using a blender or some other tool, he was trying to manually work with it with a spoon.

“You’re an absolute fool,” Eiji laughs, genuine, planting a kiss on Ash’s cheek. “Go set the table instead I’ll finish this up.”

“That’s not a very charming nickname, _honey_ ,” Ash chuckles, dripping with sarcasm. He starts with the napkins and silverware. He gives Eiji a fork and knife, knowing damn well that he’s going to use his hands anyway. It’s just to tease – the first time he had ever seen Eiji eat a burger he cut it in half, and ever since, Ash has never let that live down.

“Whatever you say, _sweetheart_ ,” Eiji smirks.

Here they go.

Ash initiates. “Of course, baby.”

“Sugar—”

“—Darling—”

“—Pumpkin.” It’s this nickname that sounded right in Eiji’s head, but once it was said, he realised what exactly was wrong with it. It wasn’t triggering, just something that causes Ash to raise his voice. There is no malice in the raised tone, it’s all playful, but there’s still that underlying sense of childhood in his eyes.

“Why would you say that?” Ash practically shouts, Eiji giggling.

Eiji shakes his head. “Sorry, pumpkin—”

“—Stop or I’ll cry,” Ash sticks his tongue out at him, and Eiji points his tongue back.

The milkshakes are the last thing set on the table when they’re done playfully bickering. Eiji places cherries on top. Ash makes a face.

“Do you like cherries?” Ash asks him. When Eiji nods, he leans across the table and puts his cherry onto Eiji’s milkshake. Is there _anything_ this little shit likes to eat?

It reminds him of this cartoon he remembers watching in the early 2000s, of this group of teenage superheroes that live in a giant T shaped tower. One of the heroes was an alien, and, not accustomed to the proper appetite of those on earth, she would joyously drink mustard straight from the bottle. Perhaps Ash is an alien just like her. Perhaps he would drink straight mustard.

Eiji takes the cherry anyway.

He notices the cherry Ash hands to him has a stem, and he grins. When he finishes his tiny fruit, he proceeds to stick the stem straight into his mouth, trying not to cackle at the face Ash had just put on display.

“Don’t tell me you fucking Japanese people eat the stem, too,” He watches, astounded.

Eiji shakes his head, holding up a finger to have him wait. He fiddles his tongue around for a few moments before he makes eye contact, raising an eyebrow as if to ask “are you ready for this?”

Ash gives him an odd look, but nods anyway.

Eiji pulls his tongue out, the cherry stem that was in has now been turned into a knot by using just the inside of his mouth alone. Ash blinks twice, before he leans in, almost as if he was watching some kind of witchcraft or magic trick. “How the fuck did you do that?”

“It’s not that hard,” Eiji says now, placing the knot onto the napkin beside him.

“You’re crazy,” Ash laughs, turning back to his food and pouring crackers onto it. Fitting.

Eiji smirks, mocking his tone one more time. “Sure, pumpkin.”

Ash throws up his hands, but all his remarks are only done out of love. That’s their lives, now, all love and comedy. It’s everything Ash pictured would be in his own perfect heaven, away from the rest of the world. And here he is, in heaven.

Ash has topped a few times before, but they were only with girls. So it’s only a matter of time before he decides that he wants to try it at least once with Eiji.

At first, when they even started trying to have sex in the first place, Eiji had suggested he topped, considering the manner of which things were taken from him – but it was actually Ash’s idea to bottom.

“I said I want to replace everything with you,” he had said. “And I mean that. _Everything._ ”

And it was replaced.

Now Ash wants to properly try topping, and at first Eiji is sceptical, but he isn’t going to voice any doubts in case it jinxes the progress in Ash’s mind. It’s easy to break, after all. It took so long to get to this point. It’s best to just let him work on his own pace.

So Eiji makes sure to shower and be clean, easier to handle and not as harsh on the senses as others probably had been. He smells sweet. He tastes like flowers.

All the work Ash goes into prepping he’s learned from his experiences with Eiji – he knows to be careful, to be gentle, to start and stop in certain ways and to make sure that everything is okay. He remembers sometimes, though, a way Eiji’s gotten him to relax a little easier is to go down on him – eating him out and sucking him slowly and having him a trembling mess at the end.

Ash pulls off their pants, and he twirls his finger to have Eiji flip onto his stomach. He spins, crossing his arms over onto his sides and whimpering softly at where they were just before.

Ash’s breathing is heavy, now, and he swallows hard – staring at the beautiful curve of Eiji’s ass that he never really took the time to admire before. He wanted to devour him. He wanted to eat.

In that exact moment – he remembers his Japanese lessons, he remembers how to convey actions and food and what’s polite when he eats. He smiles wide, chuckling slightly to himself, before spreading the cheeks wide. He knew exactly what to do.

He remembers, before every meal, there must be something to do. Something to say. And this is no exception. So right before he goes down onto Eiji, he mutters one simple term: “ _Itadakimasu._ ”

Eiji _loses_ it.

He’s trying to keep it together, relishing the feeling of Ash’s tongue but it’s hard to stay aroused with how he’s cackling so damn much. Ash can’t keep it together much longer, either, having to pull off so he can laugh it off with him.

“I just want to ask you where the _fuck_ did that come from?” Eiji asks, practically wiping tears from his eyes now. He remembers teaching him that. Fucking いただきます。

Ash at this point has no idea anymore. He’s completely forgotten how the joke had been building, all he remembers now is the punchline, the reaction. The ever-so-perfect harmonious laugh that emits from native Japanese.

“I was thanking you for the meal,” Ash chuckles, prompting Eiji to just throw a pillow and roll his head back, giggling his name.

It takes them a moment for the laughter to finally die down to a reasonable place to start again, and it’s here where Ash asks if Eiji wants to continue. He just nods, wiping his eyes and then turning back around.

By the middle of it, Eiji’s almost completely forgotten what came before. He’s moaning and writhing and gripping onto the sheets. The pillow is probably going to bear a permanent mark of his teeth for quite some time.

When he comes, he sees white, he’s trembling in careful arms and he’s calling out Ash’s name. Ash pulls back by now, wiping the remnants off so it doesn’t stain, and that’s when he just licks his lips, giggling at Eiji once again.

“ _Gochisousama_.”

Ash can only laugh with him again, his voice carries like singing. Like music. He sings often, in fact. He didn’t know about this until Eiji told him.

When his brain is on autopilot, he sings. It could be while he’s doing anything – dishes, folding laundry, helping out with work – he’s stringing words in a song together under his breath but it seems Eiji didn’t have the heart to tell him he’s not that good.

It’s not that Ash is absolutely horrific, it’s just that he’s tone deaf, so he’s absolutely not pleasant. It’s an issue when Ash wants to sing to him, pouring all his heart and soul into the piece he’s covering for Eiji – he appreciates the thought, really, he does, it’s just his ears don’t really appreciate the sound. That doesn’t make him mean, right?

Even so, Ash sings to him, for him, about him. It’s all the more childish things that makes Eiji’s heart absolutely flutter, even if his ears want to just shudder.

It’s about the third time Ash sings to him that week when he suggests that they sing together, and so they do. Eiji, if he had just a little more practice on his vocal control, could potentially be the next big artist across the world – but he chooses not to sing, except with Ash.

They take a moment to decide on what to sing, but when they do, it’s an odd form of chaos. Eiji can practically feel Ash’s musical notes forming jagged, while his own notes run smooth. It’s some sappy romantic piece, and while Ash borderline insults the cover, Eiji’s heart warms anyway.

They find themselves on the couch by the time they’re finishing, and it’s in this moment they take the time to just stare into each other’s eyes. The bright green holds a touch of warmth up above, of disbelief. Eiji almost melts, like chocolate.

They don’t even realise when their lips touch together. It’s the slowest of kisses that leave the warmest of names caught in their mouths, their arms holding onto each other in a way that seems as if they would float away if they were to let go. Ash is held down onto the sofa, Eiji hovering over top of him with a careful touch of grace.

“Kiss me again,” Ash pleads.

He does.

The kisses begin their increase, boiling like a fire beneath a furnace, leading to tongues sneaking in between kisses and wandering hands starting to work their way up shirts across backs. Eiji presses his lips to Ash’s jaw, then his neck, fumbling with his jacket to pry the denim off his body.

“Do you—” he begins.

“ _Yes_ ,” Ash cuts him off. “ _Please,_ Eiji,” he breathes heavy, now.

Eiji pulls him into his arms, then he carries him to bed.

It’s the breath – the most intimate part of any moment. The way breathing can pitch and hitch and pause and twist and _change,_ it can convey what they eyes could never. Eiji keeps track of Ash’s breathing, taking notes and bookmarking a mental list of his favourites.

There’s the blush breathing – the kind that speaks in chuckles and short burst of embarrassment. It flusters, shaking without fear and lasting longer than just a few minutes. This is probably Eiji’s most favourite of them all.

There’s the lost breathing – the one that arrives and disappears during moments like on their couch, stolen in kisses, coming back in gasps. It trembles in arousal, edging close to a flame, carrying as long as Eiji would let it.

There’s the sex breathing – fairly obvious. Panting that grows loud in volume and is stuck as the bass harmony in between singing moans. It’s a breathing that developed after working with Eiji for a long time. It’s a breathing he was never allowed to use.

Then there’s the breathing he has now – after it’s all said and done – the kind that draws out time, the breathing that reforms its own pace. It’s comforting, calm. It’s everything Ash couldn’t be in his past life. But now, in this quiet life, Eiji can finally hear it in full. It’s wonderful, it’s soul mending, it’s beautiful.

“I love you, Aslan,” Eiji whispers finally, kissing the side of cheek. Aslan curls close, holding on tight and echoing the words right back to him.

That’s right, he remembers. He is just Aslan, now, and Aslan is all Eiji ever asks him to be. And it’s when he’s Aslan is when he’s the most happy.

It’s only fitting that he’s Aslan every day. 


End file.
